Difficult Questions – Week 1

Everything that
exists in the world, everything that we experience are pieces in this puzzle.

How a person
puts the puzzle of reality together depends largely on how you view reality.

3 approaches to
assembling our puzzling reality

Matter Only View. – All there is stuff. The pieces of the puzzle are all there is. No
outside information, no box. Just time and chance arranging things as they
should be.

Mind Only View
– Stuff is all just an illusion. Those pieces of the puzzle you see on the card
table, they don’t really exist. All there is now is the picture on the box.
Find yourself in the picture on the box.

Confusing I know, but the mind view is a real approach. New Age, Buhhdism.

The Biblical View. We can work to make some of them fit by trial and error. The good news.
There is a picture on the box that we can refer to know how to make sense of
life. Actually there is an artist behind the picture and his desire in making
and arranging the pieces as he has it that we would know him and experience
him.

This year we
are starting a new sermon series.

TODAY – I want
us to make sure we understand the Picture of Reality that the bible paints for
us.

The bible is the story of Reality. If we take it,
understand it and apply it, it works.

In the coming
weeks and months we plan to discuss more of the details in the picture the
bible paints and why we can trust the picture.

As the year
progresses we will look at different parts of the puzzle and see how they fit
into our existence.

He encountered
people who were trying to fit the puzzle of life together without looking at
the puzzle box.

Paul stood
before them and said, let me tell you what the picture on the box is so that
you will know how the puzzle fits together.

Acts 17:22-33

“Men of Athens,
I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along
and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription:
‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to
you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven
and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human
hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life
and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind
to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and
the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and
perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from
each one of us, 28 for
“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,
“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is
like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of
man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people
everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the
world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given
assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others
said, “We will hear you again about this.”

Let me
summarize Paul’s speech.

There is a God
who made all of this, he can be known and you and I actually were made for him.
We’ve lived in ignorance, ignoring God but now he calls us to repent. The time
of repentance has come because Jesus has come into the world and been raised
from the dead.

There is an
artist behind the picture on the puzzle box. He designed all the pieces to fit
together and he left us with the box to know how things fit together.

The Bible is the story of reality. It is the picture
on the puzzle box.

Three
foundational ideas from Paul’s speech that form the picture of reality.

(1)God is There

Psalm 19 The heavens declare the glory of the Lord. The skies proclaim
His handiwork. Day after day they pour forth speech.

Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world – God’s invisible
quality his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being
understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse.

Romans 2:15 Those who do not have the law still follow the
law and show the law of God is written on their hearts.

There is a sense of “oughtness” in all of us. Things
ought to be a certain way

People “ought” to be treated a certain way.

Paul says this
awareness of “oughtness”confirms God is There.

God is at the beginning of the Story. The whole things
starts with Him.

If God
is not at the beginning, what is?

Matter? Gravity?

Where does gravity come from …. where does matter come from …

I recently watched a PBS special on a space probe sent out by a
group called New Horizons.

In the special a scientist explained one theory of planetary
formation in which what they described
pebbles are
drawn to one another and stick together.

They compared this theory of planetary formation to dust
bunnies forming under your couch or bed… or
the mother load of dust bunnies….your refrigerator.

I understand dust bunnies being formed… but dust are
made from something.

There is
dust in dust bunnies and a force that brings that
dust together.

Time and chance does not create dust bunnies.

Time and
chance cannot put a puzzle together.

One Scientist on PBS made a
great observation

He said – “This probe may help us understand how the Earth
was formed but it will not help us understand “Why” we are here.

Science may tell us some of the what and some of the how but not
why.

Paul answers the why question. You and I are here for God.

(2)Everything,
Everyone was made for Him

He does not need

He is complete and perfect

He did
not create to satisfy himself.

He likes
what he made in this world in you and in me.

Let’s
jump to the favorite part of the picture… Ourselves!

How do I
look in this picture? How do I fit in?

Turns out in the biblical story we are more than just matter
and dust.

We are special. Not because we are strong or smart or have
opposable thumbs.

WE have innate value. WE are special in quality not in
quantity.

According
to the Biblical story, Tiffany, my wife was not made for me.

She was made for God. She is God’s possession.

My marriage gets messed up if Tiffany becomes – my possession

Make dinner, make me happy. Take care of these kids.

Live,
exist, for my happiness alone.

People as a part of God’s creation are not just objects for our pleasure or obstacles to our happiness, they
are priceless treasures.

When I twist a person into object made for me eventually lose their
value.

You are not as pretty any more.

You don’t make me laugh anymore.

You annoy me. You are frustrating. It is hard to care for you.

I don’t like you.

You and
I were not meant to be used up and discarded.

We are more than just matter.

Humanity
is a treasure made by God for God.

He does
not need us. He just like us and delights in us.

I was not made for me. I exist for God

Rom 12:2 Offer
your bodies as living sacrifices.

We may
not like this picture but we realize everything belongs to Him.

We are
tenants and he is the landlord.

His purpose in all of what we experience in His world is that
we (his treasured creation ) would seek Him and find Him even though He is not
hiding.

Third thing Paul tells us in the story.

(3)God has
not left us alone

What has
God given us?

A.He’s given us each other.

The gift
of friendship and relationship is a precious gift because we are more than just
a collection of dust and chemicals.

We have
each other to help us put the puzzle together and enjoy this experience we call
life

We don’t rule and possess each other but we get to love, serve, and bless one another. We get to be
friends and companions.

B.He has given us the scriptures.

For the next few months we
will look deeper at the reliability of the scriptures. They are breathed out by God and are
useful

Terry mentioned this a few weeks ago.

Let me remind you of some reasons to trust the scriptures.

1. Accurate in
Prediction.

Isaiah predicted the exile of Israel. it happened –

Isaiah Predicted Christ’s coming it happened

2. Accurate in
Description

What Paul described in Athens lines up with what we observe in the
world. Both out there the heavens and in here-His law written on on hearts.

3. Accurate in
Prescription.

Turns
out, if you do what the bible says, it works. If
tried and carried out over time faithfully the puzzle pieces of life will fit
together. Time and obedience are Key!

C.He’s given us the Holy Spirit.

A personal being who is fully God not a force who in dwells each
believer reminding us of the truth. He is active in the world
convicting of sin and the reality of the scriptures.

D. He has given us Jesus.

A person who was exceptionally wise and good and who claimed to be
God. Jesus is a singularity in all of Human history.

Some
say, “Jesus at least the Jesus of the bible is a myth.”

There is no evidence to support that claim.

Actually the evidence points to the opposite.

Will Durant
Pulitzer Prize author of The Story of Civilization.

No one reading these scenes (NT) can doubt the
reality of the figure behind them. . . . After two centuries of higher
criticism, the outlines of the life, character and teachings of Christ remain
reasonably clear and constitute the most fascinating feature in the history of
Western man.

Paul said to
the men in Athens, you can know that Jesus is the man
you should expect because he came back to life

Romans 1:4. Jesus was declared with power to be the I son of God
by His resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ our Lord.

He is man.

He claimed to be God and proved it in the resurrection.

Problem – If
God has not left us alone, why do I feel so
alone at times? Why does the world seem hopeless and full of hurt?

If
matter is all there, then you feel alone because you actually are alone.

That
person staring back at you is nothing special, they are a collection of cells
and energy. The things you feel – electricity and chemical reactions nothing
more because you are nothing more than stuff. That does not jive with our
experience of reality.